Half Heroes
by Ill-Fated-Wish
Summary: Allen Walker had been waiting for years to get his hands on the Dream-Scape 2000 - The game console of dreams. What happens when a game created for adventure at every corner is suddenly plagued with a virus? A virus eliminating the restart button and sealing all exits to reality. Suddenly the two words "Game Over" are more insidious than ever...
1. Chapter 1

**Hoshino Katsura owns where these beautiful character are from…I'm just borrowing them**

Chapter 1

Numbers, numbers, and more _numbers._ All of them swirling around in a nightmarish merry-go-round of fun with money and torturing Allen Walker. His eyes went from one 6 digit number to the next, the seemingly normal looking sheets of paper littered harmlessly around him circled around him depicting the perfect picture of a studious teenager. But no, those flimsy white papers are etched with the bain of his being…His master's debts are the very reason why this sixteen year old boy is pulling out his hair from frustration, suffering sleep deprivation, near starvation, and shuffling papers in a mad frenzy.

A piercing headache was gnawing Allen from the inside out, clearly visible to the naked eye due to his pained expression. Slumped over the table he entered a nightmarish haze where it was only he and the numbers. Those numbers, adding and adding until suddenly he wasn't staring at numbers but at the ceiling with a more prominent stinging jabbing his head making him feel like an axe murderer just scalped him. He groaned and registered the sound of heavy boots approaching him and if he had been any less half dead he would have heard the light snickering of his demon guardian, Cross Marian.

Sitting up slowly Allen glared at a tower of a man with red hair untied and wild as his personality. His half mask that had unnerved countless people no longer had any effect on Allen but in an odd way he was kind of glad that that man was only able to bring one condescending eye upon him. A handle full of seconds in that man's presence was enough to annoy Allen, he had been tallying up this man's debts, they weren't his, they were this poor excuse of a human's selfish expenses that annoyed the younger to no end. Did I mention that it annoyed him? Well, maybe that's why some sub persona possessed Allen and he blurted, "O, it's you…no wonder why my headache intensified, it must have sensed you were in a 1 mile radius of me."

"And just how are you still alive again? Ah, I keep forgetting, it must be because you have me, the only person on this planet who can put up with that black hole of a stomach of yours. So disrespectful." Allen watched as the red head shook his head as if _he_ was having his tme wasted by the other. He couldn't help feeling slightly confused though, it had been less than a week since his master left without telling him…Again…But usually he wouldn't be back for months. And when he did come back he usually dragged in boxes of wine and countless other things from his travels, he felt as if he had all the pieces to a puzzle but just one seemed slightly off, why did he showed up so early? Cross must have felt the confusion rolling off his charge like an unpleasant heat wave and sighed as if he wasn't the problem.

Allen rubbed the increasing throb on his head and huffily wondered just what Master had thrown at him. He looked up to see the demon of a man already walking right back out the door! _This man shows up. Only a week gone and doing God knows what. Spends his money so sinfully he would burst in flames the second he stepped in church. Throws a goddam refrigerator at my head. I probably have a concussion now. And he leaves. Nope, not having that._ The white haired boy stumbled to his feet clumsily to give Cross just a piece of his mind but the red haired man had already shut the door as the younger had fumed about the injustice.

That was incredibly random. Allen stared at the door wondering if his mind finally broke and hallucinated that whole...thing…But the door squeaked open as that red haired man's face appeared once more with an even more annoying look upon his face.

"A word of advice to my idiot apprentice: _get a life._ " The door slammed again with a resonating thud and Allen could hear the sound of his military boots marching off.

Allen bristled with indignation and vividly imagined strangling that infuriating poor excuse for a human. Preferably with that man's conveniently long red hair…That'd be good…very good. Snickering to himself, Allen was about to sit down and continue his grueling work when he saw something that wasn't there before. A large box, Different from those memory inducing wooden crates carrying his master's precious wines-but a box nevertheless. Usually when he received those boxes of wine Allen had to just set it aside so that Cross could methodically put them in his cellar with a tenderness not even reserved for his women. This time Allen hoped it was an exception; especially if the box was thrown at his head. He picked it up and snorted when he saw stamped on the top of it: FRAGILE - HANDLE WITH CARE. Apparently somebody didn't get the memo. Curiously, Allen pulled at the tape holding and opened the flaps of the shiny white box. The contents startled Allen so much that he just about had a heart attack.

In all the years that Allen had been under Cross's care, about the only things that could be considered gifts-but weren't really gifts at all were about two things. Yes, two. The first, being a potted plant that seemed normal but Allen would swear on his honor that that plant had an attention disorder. One day Cross had come home with his traveling bags and looking more or less the picture of a frazzled traveler with the way his hair was more unkempt than usual, his hat crooked as well as his glasses were crooked, and his coat had more than a touch of dirt. He had left all his baggage at the door and walked towards the surprised boy who had finished gorging himself with food and said: _In that box over there, there is a gift from a friend. Take care of it. You let it die; I'll let you die._ He then turned on his heel and went straight to his bedroom. Lo and behold the gift was a plant that would have a violent tantrum if it was not shown affection. Allen had "fun" those first couple of weeks as his hands were gnawed and his head was bitten more than the otherwise patient boy could handle with matters besides his master. The other gift…It's just best said that it was claimed by Cross to be the only educational gift that a man such as himself could impart with his apprentice. Allen had a violent blush the color of a radish burning his face for a whole week and some. And now, this. Allen couldn't believe it.

With his eyes twinkling from excitement, Allen couldn't care less if it turned out that his master was abducted by some alien subspecies and replaced with an imposter if that meant he had the Dream-Scape 2000 right in front of him. He had been longing to get his hands on this virtual reality game that connected to the gamer's dreams and weaved games of such beauty everyone and their mother had gotten one of them the moment it was released. Overcome with joy, Allen didn't care that it was only the middle of the day and ran to his room with his precious cargo in his arms. He didn't even have to read the instructions as he had already read everything there was to know about the game console. Such as the fact that there was only one game released by the Dream-Scape corps and it was called: Half Heroes. A fantasy game with worlds within worlds and no two players experience in the game was the same.

Laying down on his back he gingerly set up the system and willed himself to slip into those silky fingers of sleep.

XxX

" _Welcome to Half Heroes."_

" _What is your name?"_

" _A-allen Walker."_

" _Do you need a tutuorial on how to play Half Heroes?"_

" _No, thank you."_

"" _Very well, go forth Allen Walker."_

XxX

He was falling. He was falling. _He was falling?_ Allen's silver eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as his racing mind couldn't recall anything about _falling into the game._ If the wind hurtling his back and crazily whistling by his ears were anything to go by he was definitely _not_ where he was supposed to be. He was supposed to be in the central plaza of whatever city and whatever world  not falling from whatever sky. As luck would have it, he here he was, plummeting to his death and he hadn't even started the game. Briefly he wondered if it was even possible to start the game with negative hp and then the blue sky went black.

 **Hallo!**

 **I've had this idea in my mind for a while now and just wanted to share what I had so far with you all. This DGM fanfic is based off of Sword Art Online, Half-Prince and will have some elements of Fairy Tail. Sorry if some parts don't make sense or the pacing is terrible…I just got really too excited to edit and read it through like twice…but if you like it, then I'll do a better job in later chapters.**

 **-Ill-Fated-Wish**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: All rights reserved for Hoshino Katsura**

Chapter 2~

Wind lapped at his face and cooled his pale cheeks and hands. It almost sounded as if he were by an ocean with the swaying dry waves of fine wheat swaying with each breeze. Allen felt as if he wouldn't mind staying, he reasoned that it wouldn't hurt to just relax for a bit. _'Wait,'_ he frowned and rolled the phrase "it wouldn't hurt" in his mind. _'it wouldn't hurt…'_ feeling as if he were missing something he felt it very strange that he was laying somewhere quite comfortably as if he wasn't supposed to be comfortable at all. And then it hit him with the magnitude of an earthquake.

"How am I not dead?!" The night world blossomed to life around him as he shot up. But up was down and down was up as he had sat up so quickly his mind reeled. He patted himself down and found that nothing hurt at all. A cloud of his breath puffed forth into the chilly night as he sighed in relief but yet he couldn't help feeling confused. Allen knew he was rather slow but things still didn't add up. Slowly, he laid back down and pondered his situation in the middle of what he pleasantly found out was a field awash in the moon's silvery light.

From all the articles and gaming books he had read about Half Heroes he had never seen anything about _falling_ into the game. Instead, all the manuals had said that every player would randomly be sent to one of the many worlds the game was famous for, and then the new player would get his or her weapon and firmly establish their place in the game. His eyebrows scrunched up as he wondered if he had messed up his game. Unfortunately, it seemed he had taken some damage from that fall as his mind felt as if it was whirled in a blender and handed back to him in a tangled mess of unintellectual goop. But that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the beautiful art of the game. He would always be amazed by the fact that the game was created by thousands of artists and game enthusiasts who created this perfect world for every dreamer. Not only that, the game connected to the sleeping mind and also worked in the game-players dream world. Due to that, everything may be the same but some elements of the game are purely unique to others.

So, staring up into the dazzling night sky in all its starry glory Allen wondered if the Van Gogh painting above him was at least the same for others because it was nice to know that he was not the only one gazing upon such beauty.

The coolness of the night dropped to an unbearable cold and Allen unwilling sat up but his silver eyes shown even more from his quiet musings. The grand moon had risen higher and choosing a random direction to walk in he set off.

XxX

If Allen had thought he was cold before, boy was he wrong. It was as if the weather had latched onto an anchor and plummeted the area into the piercing frost of the Atlantic. It probably didn't help that for some reason the game decided to give him some not very warm black slacks, a matching velvet vest, a thin white dress shirt and a red ribbon tied around his neck as the only things warding off the frosty air. Allen rubbed his arms with his gloved hands and for that he was grateful, at least the game was kind enough to allow him to conceal his deformed arm. It wasn't that Allen was ashamed of his arm, it was just that although he should've gotten used to the odd and pitying looks thrown his way for his mangled veiny arm-he just couldn't. Cross was about the only one Allen felt semi-comfortable to leave his hands ungloved. But sometimes in rare bouts of concern Allen would even see his master give him some pitying looks that were much worse than any condescending look the arrogant redhead could give him at his drunkest.

Allen knew he had to keep moving to keep warm but he just wanted to slump to his knees and sleep. Seriously, those fluffy looking thickets didn't look that bad, nor did that sturdy looking tree just to the left of him. ' _What was that saying again'_ the white haired boy wondered _follow the north star? Head straight to the second star to the right? Does that even count here? My God…I am seriously sleepy…'_ His thoughts spiraled and he just then wondered where exactly he was going. He knew that he just chose a random place to walk towards but maybe there isn't any civilization and the reason he fell into the game was because there was a glitch in the program and now he is stuck forever?! _Bugger…_

The exhaustion was catching up to him and Allen no longer felt like praising the game for the realism, he felt it really was too much. He had never felt so tired in his life and suddenly everything felt that much darker and he had never felt more alone in his life. Tripping on his feet he went from being vertical to horizontal. The trees in the area were sparse and apart from one another so when Allen looked up from his suddenly heavenly bed of the gravel ground he was more than surprised to see an inconstant in the sea of moonlight. Right off in the horizon there was an orange blob of light contrasting with the pale light of the stars. He mentally slapped his forehead as even doing that physically would burn too much energy. Just how in the world did he not notice that before!? He shook his head and gritted his teeth as he sauntered towards the orange splash of light bound to be cared for by others. He planned on asking if he could maybe stay with them till morning, ask for directions on how to get to the central and go on his merry way…Maybe after asking for some scraps of food.

XxX

There were people all right-and they all seemed nice-well, of course they would seem nice…They had fire, and might it be mentioned a very warm and merry fire. Allen continued and could see the features of one face, he was tending the fire and the flame's light jumped at all weird angles of the other's face. Allen could tell he had a colorful bandana around fiery hair (like someone he knew) and what seemed to be an eyepatch on one side of his face (again, like someone he knew). The other he couldn't see much of as they were cocooned in a blanket a little off to the side presumably sleeping. Allen quietly stepped forward into the light and the red head tending the fire jumped three feet into the air, "SHIT! ANOTHER GHOST!"

Well, Allen wasn't expecting that reaction and he raised his hands in a placating manner, "W-wait, I'm not a ghost!" And Allen's eyes widened marginally as the redhead screeched, "That's what they all say!" and then proceed to throw salt at him. "Spirit be gone!"

Allen was still there. The stranger put up a valiant effort though. Obviously having expecting something to happen…the redhead looked severely confused and Allen was tempted to laugh at the look on the other's face. Putting two and two together, the redhead smiled sheepishly and raised an arm to scratch behind his head, "Ah, so you're not a ghost. Am I right?"

"Right…"

"Sorry I attacked you man. Today was wild, just came back from a mission involving ghosts." He explained.

Feeling guilty at startling the other Allen shook his head and said, 'No, I should be the one apologizing. I shouldn't have come over here in the first place."

'It's alright, are you lost?"

"Yeah," Allen admitted while fiddling with the hem of his glove..

"Did you want to sit down for a bit? It's pretty cold around here" He sat and motioned for Allen to join him, "My name is Lavi by the way." The now named stranger said happily.

Allen smiled as he lowered himself by the fire, "My name is Allen."

"Great!" Lavi's smile melted all traces of previous fright, "now that all pleasantries are settled…Is that a British accent you have there?"

It's amazing how many times Allen had been asked that during his travels with Cross but Allen smiled politely and nodded, "Yes." And somehow Lavi's grin stretched further to the point where it must have hurt.

"I like you already, dude. I would introduce you to my pal over there-" Lavi jerked his head to the side where the blanketed form lay-"but if her bro finds out he'll twist it in his mind somehow that instead of simply shaking her awake I had declared my love for her or something just as suicidal and I'll be murdered by a robot. I mean that would be cool and all-I mean, robots are awesome but not ones with that man's face." He visibly shivered and shook his head, "I'd rather see that they're making a movie sequel to Avatar the Last Airbender than have that mad sister-complex's face be the last thing I see." He smiled again and they slipped into talking about everything and nothing as the fire before them crackled and sent waves of warmth onto the happily flushed cheeks of the two sitting before it.

Allen found out that Lavi and his friend, Lenalee, the napping person, were going to hop worlds to meet their friend who after much persuasion joined the game too. Lavi added that he and Lenalee had just found out by accident that their good friend had been playing the game for months and didn't tell them. At some point the circumstances of Allen's arrival into the game were brought forth and it was like the flick of a switch as suddenly Lavi turned semi-Sherlock as he tried to assess the situation.

"So you're saying that when you entered the game you _fell_ out of the sky?"

"Yes," Allen repeated for the umpteenth time. He knew that his new friend was highly intelligent and they had just met. But he couldn't help feeling that Lavi liked to hear his own voice as Allen contributed around 5.5% to the conversation. Lavi's opinions and facts just spun out of him like a well-oiled machine: fast and without impediment. .

"Well, luckily for you, my dear Briton, I may just have the solution to your predicament."

Allen leaned forward excitedly, "what is it?"

"You can come with us!" Lavi exclaimed. His green eye twinkling as he threw his hands in the air.

"Really?! But won't that throw off your plans?"

"Nah, we are heading that way. The Central has all the portals which is where you need to go and officially become part of the game. You know, like pick up your weapon and all that jazz."

"That sounds great," Allen gave a genuine smile to his new friend.

They sat in companionable silence letting the night air still around them with the dying of the fire being the only inconstant.

"Hey," Lavi said softly, "The sun's coming up."

Indeed, the night sky was leaking away to a brilliant red and orange tapestry as the fiery orb peeked from below the horizon.

"Yeah,"

XxX

"My name is Lenalee," A gentle smile and lavender eyes twinkled kindly at him.

"Pleasure, I'm Allen." Allen returned the smile as they shook hands. After sharing formalities Allen helped the other two pack the few things they carried and they then started down the road. After some polite questions and getting to know the conscious girl Allen found out that Lenalee didn't play video games very often till Half Heroes, she liked the original Pokémon, shipped Dramione, was fluent in The Lord of the Ring's Elvish and had a strong dislike of macaroni. Allen wasn't quite sure how that last bit was relevant to anything they had been talking about but from what the white haired boy could tell, it had some embarrassing memories tied to the pasty noodles. There was a period of silence as they walked in the fresh morning air and apparently Lenalee thought it would be a good conversation starter to say, "So, you really scared Lavi last night, Allen."

"You heard that?! Lavi asked.

"Of course, Lavi. I'm sure you woke up half the continent with your yells. I'm surprised you didn't run away Allen. Lenalee turned to the white haired boy with one slim eyebrow raised and a playful smile sitting on her face.

Lavi stared at Lenalee, "but what if he _had_ been a ghost? _You_ just _laid_ there the whole time!" he whined. his pride a bit wounded.

"Come off it, if he had been a "ghost" then there would at least have been some sort of change in the atmosphere. "

Lavi shook his head at the raven haired girl's explanation and whispered to Allen, "she thinks she can _sense_ ghosts…You know like a sixth sense?"

"I heard that Lavi, and I'll have you know that I actually can sense them."

"That's what you said yesterday with that mission but every time was just a false alarm. Jeeze, you gave me a really good scare each and every time."

Lenalee crossed her arms and huffed, "you were just overly paranoid. I never actually said that there was ghost all those times, I just pointed out that there was a change in the air."

"Isn't that basically pointing out the same thing?" Lavi tilted his head to the side.

"No." She sniffed.

Allen wracked his mind for something to say and kept pulling up loose threads till he thought of something: "So, this friend of yours? Who are they?"

The mood lifted a fraction and Lavi burst with "O Yuu-chan? That's his name. You'll love him Allen he is cranky, moody, and I honestly wouldn't put it passed him if one day he killed a man!"

"Ermm."

"Or maybe he already has…Hey, Lenalee!" Lavi had to yell that last bit as Lenalee had walked further away from them. She turned, "Yeah?"

"Has Yuu-chan ever killed a man?"

Lenalee seemed to seriously consider this for a moment before saying, "You know, you shouldn't be calling him by his first name even if we're miles away. He probably had a vein burst unexplainably just now." Allen didn't know how he felt when she didn't answer the question.

"Anyways, you'll both love each other Allen," Lavi said with conviction.

Somehow Allen felt that sometime in the distant future...He didn't know why…But he would remember those words spoken by Lavi…And probably be the first person to ever manage laughing himself to death…

XxX

To be entirely honest, Allen wasn't sure just what he had been expecting.

In all the books and articles he had read concerning Half Heroes there had never really been any descriptions about The Central but he couldn't blame them at all.

Right before him, stretching proudly above the mountains was the most beautiful tree Allen had ever seen.

From afar, the tree had melded into the horizon but now Allen could clearly see why there weren't any pictures or descriptions of it. It was breathtaking. Labyrinths of branches intertwined and danced amongst themselves in a sea of emerald leaves. The trunk was one towering wall of jagged angles wrinkling its warm chocolaty texture.

"wow," Allen breathed. He craned his neck and barely registered the protests of such an odd angle being forced upon his neck.

"Exactly, my reaction," Lenalee smiled as she too stared up into the tangle of branches contrasting with the leaves like the borders of stained glass. Except this grand stained glass window was made entirely of greens of all different shades.

The trio stood shoulder to shoulder admiring the tree some more before Lavi said, "We should get going inside guys."

The others nodded in agreement and entered the natural opening of that the tree had. The entrance folded naturally away as The Central opened before them.

Inside, it was dimly lit and had thousands and thousands of rectangular shapes filed inside the trunk of the tree. It was with closer observation that they were doors with people hopping in and out of them all dressed in different attires and wielding different weapons. The cacophony of voices of baritone to high left Allen's ears ringing in an almost pleasant way as he felt as if he felt that the place was simply booming with energy.

Sidestepping swarms of people and nearly having his hair shaven off from a pair of rather large scissors, the trio stopped at one particularly large set of doors with elaborate etchings carved into it skillfully.

"This is where you have to go Allen." Lavi said as he glanced at the time.

Allen wondered just how was he supposed to go in the doors. There wasn't a handle or anything that said "push to open." He was just about to voice these thoughts when Lavi said, "sorry man, gotta run. Our lovely friend does not like to be kept waiting. We'll meet you back here, ok? "

And Allen was alone as Lavi pulled Lenalee by the hand into the blur of people once more. Staring up at the big oak doors that probably weighed more than a warship, Allen sighed..

He looked around to see if anyone noticed him but it seemed as if everyone was in their own little worlds. Pushing back his sleeves, he shifted his feet, and mumbled "here goes nothing" as he took one more look up at the seemingly endless pair of doors. He lunged forward with both hands out and-

He was falling…Again.

 _Bloody fantastic._

XxX

Allen didn't black out this time but he sure as hell felt the pain of falling at least more than should be normal. He was seriously getting tired of all this falling business…Seriously, he isn't _that_ clumsy and ill coordinated. Right?

Anyways, now that he thought about it all those other people hopping thought the doors were actually literally hopping straight though them…And Lavi didn't tell him. He face palmed and pinched his nose. _Now is not the time to be thinking about redheaded twats._ Allen then took in his surroundings.

It didn't have the same feeling of the tree that was booming with life but had a more ancient feeling that hummed of wisdom. In fact if Allen strained his ears really hard he would swear that he could hear something or someone breathing.

By all means, where Allen found himself was a very unusual place. The round walls and arches lining the granite auditorium somehow gave him the image of the Roman Colosseum that he had seen once upon a time. Except this auditorium didn't have the same warmth of the Italian sun nor the lazy wind smelling of purple wine and spices. Instead, it had a rather sad feeling to the high rising walls. If Allen were a bit more poetic he would have described it to a child's forgotten blanket or a locket that had slipped from a poorly attached chain.

There was a soft white light illuminating the eerie place in an almost chilling way. Allen walked towards the center of the building where there were banisters encircling a large round opening in the floor. The sound of his shoes bounced off the walls in a slow rhythmic fashion. Reaching the source light his hands rested on the cool surface of the iron railings as he peered down into the abyss.

Only to find it staring right back.

XxX

 **That's where I'm gonna leave it at folks… I had some extra time so I worked on this chapter really early and because i have zero self-restraint I'm going to post this one early. Just to let you know, once school starts picking up again, updates will be weekly.**

 **Also, I didn't edit much so I apologize if there are any mistakes or oc-ness.**

 **I feel like barely anything happened of much importance but this was necessary. Sorry if it seems slow I swear it's going to pick up the pace right after this chapter once everyone is together! Hope you stay with me for the next chapter! Let me know what you think!**

Ill-Fated-Wish


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything…

Chapter 3

A white mass of glowing white light slowly stretched up and up till the room flooded with light. The light emanating from the creature spilled into every nook and cranny of the auditorium. Much enraptured by the grand creature before him Allen felt something slither around his waist at the last minute as his feet were lifted from the ground.

"WHA?!"

The tendril whipped him up to what Allen supposed were the giant white mass's eyes. His fingers clawed at feathery material but his fingers simply slipped off as if the feathers were soaked in oil. He stopped prying at the tendrils when a calming voice reverberated off the hollow walls.

"Relax, I won't hurt you." He fidgeted in the grip of the monster and found that he wasn't being held in a rib crushing hold at all. In fact, despite the overall discomfort of being suspended in the air, the monster didn't even have sharp teeth or anything that threatened he was lunch. Allen tried to follow the giant's orders and tried to loosen up. I mean, after all, this is where he was supposed to go too. Vaguely he remembered reading something about this but strangely the book never disclosed anything relating to the World Tree.

A wave of light rolled off the creature before him and he could physically feel the light seeping into his pores. At first it was a pleasant feeling; it reminded Allen lying out in the sun. He tuned into himself and curiously left the light wash over him. As if hitting a brick wall the flow of the energy stopped abruptly at the base of his left arm. Strangely enough it seemed to be rejecting the light, denying it access and a great pain jolted through Allen. The most outlandish and freaky feeling unsurfaced as the light increased in its intensity and suddenly he felt as if his arm was just getting heavier. He looked upon his deformed arm in growing horror as he realized that it was in fact growing and were those claws?

"AAAGGHHH!"

The electricity coursed through his veins and seemed to even pierce his heart to a horrifying halt. And then all at once the pain stopped and he was on the floor once more.

"That has never happened before."

Allen looked up and he could clearly see the look of apology upon the creatures face.

He croaked, "What was supposed to happen? Who are you?"

The white creature extended a white tendril and pulled Allen up, "I am Hevlaska. What I do is part of the system. When new players arrive, I am the one they see first so that I can give them their chosen weapon."

Allen looked around his feet for any lying swords, hatchets or axes but did not see any lethal sharp things.

"You are a special case, child. Your weapon is a part of you and only you can awaken it. I think the reason why it had caused you so much pain was because I was trying to summon it when you are the one who is supposed to call out for it."

"So, that moment when my arm had grown heavier and claws came out…That was my weapon?"

Hevlaska nodded sagely, "Correct. Weapons in this game were designed to reflect each player's inner self. They share a direct correlation with each player. As time passes, each person will become more in tune with their weapon the more they wield it. There are some who have traded their weapon for a more powerful one but they will always find themselves, one way or another, with their original."

"You have great potential; it will take more time to become acquainted with your weapon."

Understanding but not fully, Allen slowly nodded.

"You will see, go now. Your friends wait."

Light shot up from beneath his feet, completely engulfing his vision as one moment he had been in about the quietest place on earth and the next he was surrounded by incessant chatter of hundreds.

"Allen~!" A familiar voice cried and he turned to see Lavi and Lenalee with pleasant smiles adorning their faces as they skirted around the milling the people. "So, how did it go Allen?" Lenalee asked politely.

"O it went well, thank you Lenalee-" He turned to Lavi and gave one of his tiny chilling smiles and said, "by the way Lavi, thanks for telling me about what to expect in there. Really appreciate it."

"Ah no problem buddy." Lavi replied nervously, his sole eye darting everywhere. His eye settled on the yet to be introduced member of the party, "O! Here's the friend we were telling you about Allen!" He pulled a man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail in front of Allen.

"You must be Kanda, I'm Allen Walker. It's nice to meet you." Allen smiled and expectantly put up his hand to shake. The other oddly seemed amused as he shook his hand. Feeling hopeful that he had made a good impression on the friend of his only friends in the game Allen's smile widened further till…

"Hmph. Who knew 12 year olds had manners."

"Excuse me?" What did he just say?

Kanda turned to look at Lenalee and Lavi as if they had insulted him. "Where did you guys find this kid? I don't want to babysit anybody." When in fact he has been the one doing the insulting.

"I'm so sorry Allen! Normally Kanda isn't like this…" She shot her dark haired friend a confused glare.

Screw being a gentleman.

"Well, at least now the even number of guys and girls will be equal." Allen spat, knowing that all guys with long hair had a touchy spot around that subject.

"Ooooh! I'm telling ya! I love this guy!" Lavi cried and burst out laughing as he seemed to be the only one who found this situation amusing. From the corner of his eye he could see Lenalee cover her mouth but Allen was on a mission. He could handle Cross, but he was here to have a good time and nobody was going to spoil that.

Allen cracked a smile as he watched Kanda work out what he said and then 'bingo' that face turned from confused to avenging angel rage mode at the drop of a hat. Now, what Allen had been expecting was another insult to be thrown his way-and not a really sharp looking katana to be thrown at his face.

Somewhere behind him someone screamed in surprise as the katana narrowly missed impaling them and instead embedded itself in the wall far behind them.

"That's NOT how you respond to people! You could've killed me!" Allen yelled."

"That was the point!"

All heads in a fifty-mile radius swiveled towards them to see the commotion and a wide berth had been cleared as people viewed them in anticipation for the bloodbath that would ensure. Free entertainment, right? But before anything remotely resembling a boxing match to the death could ignite Lenalee stepped in and bonked both Allen and Kanda on the heads with a clipboard that both of them were sure she didn't have before.

"Stop it! What did you guys think you were doing?!" She cried in indignation.

"Why did you say those things Kanda? And Allen , I never expected you to pick up a fight!" She turned to both them both of them with a look that would shame even the most heartless of villains into dropping everything and leading the life of a garbage picker. "Say sorry." She demanded, "Now."

And that was just about the furthest thing Allen wanted to do and from the looks of it his new "friend" looked revolted at the very idea. They both glanced at each other, their eyebrows furrowed and they mentally murdered each other through their glares. Turning away from each other they said at the same time, "never."

The crowd that had gathered had dispersed going back to whatever they had been doing with sighs of disappointment.

Lenalee sighed as she saw their looks of stubbornness as tough as rocks on their faces. Not feeling up to lengthening this disaster of introducing her friends, the last thing she said before heading towards the exit was:

"Lavi, will you stop laughing?"

XxX

"So, if I'm hearing correctly, this mission you guys have picked up, involves purposely going directly into the forest that has big signs saying otherwise?

"Correct, but I wouldn't exactly phrase it like that…" Lavi said.

Allen imagined all different ways this mission could go wrong and asked: "Isn't that really-reckless?"

"Well, my dear boy, what were you expecting? Of course we'd pick this mission!"

"You picked this mission Lavi." Lenalee pointed out.

"Haha, that's not important."

"Don't you think that I won't be much help to you guys?" Allen asked as he had just gotten the game after all and couldn't activate his weapon. He heard something that sounded vaguely like: "You're not very much help to anybody" but he wasn't bothered by that at the moment. Though, that didn't stop him from giving a rather tough tug at his ponytail. In a way that reminded Allen of The Exorcist, Kanda whipped his head around and was about to say something when Lenalee said excitedly: "Of course not! This will be a good opportunity for you to see a real fight in this game!" She didn't notice a thing. Good.

Allen thought about it and that did seem to make some sense so he nodded.

They set off into the forest that many others had seemed to cut a wide arc around to the point where new trails were created. Allen felt he couldn't very well blame them as the surrounding dry trees looked like hands that had had every bone in their fingers snapped. An acrid smell of ashes watered Allen's eyes and burned their noses.

He was thoroughly spooked as with every unexpected snap of a twig and wind whistled Allen thought he had spotted a shadow behind a tree. With a start he realized he had never asked just what they were looking for in the less than appealing forest and he voiced his thoughts aloud.

"On the description of the mission it didn't really describe what we were looking for…" Lavi said and scratched behind his head.

"Nothing at all?" That seemed a bit to odd, why wouldn't it have anything on it?

"Yeah, well, you see, no one has ever left this forest remembering what had attacked them."

Allen frowned, "So, we're just walking around waiting for whatever to come out and get us?"

"Basically."

"Great."

Allen didn't really see the sense in that plan but they were already deep in the creaking forest.

The earth beneath their feet suddenly jolted. Allen's eyes jerked upwards to equally surprised eyes trained on each other. A blood curdling howl ripped through the air and the trees nearest to them snapped in half as a giant caterpillar like monster crashed into the clearing. It was something out of a nightmare. The monster had hollow eyes and its face was but a mask attached to a translucent skeletal body of some half dead creature.

"Come on!" In a blur of violet and silver Lenalee launched up into the air and somersaulting in the air she smacked the heel of her glowing boots onto the head of the monster. It reared its body and long claws slashed through the air trying to swap at Lenalee as if she were a fly. It seemed to have forgotten that there were three others and two of them had weapons at the ready. Lenalee dug her heels in the floor as she landed on the ground again, "Allen, try and activate your weapon." She flew back up in the air.

"Yeah, man, don't wanna have you defenseless. Ya'know?" Lavi thumped Allen on the shoulder before running in with Kanda.

A blade slashed through the tough skin of the monster and a large hammer like weapon pounded its side. Allen pulled off his gloves and held out his arm hoping that it would transform or something. He looked up to see the attacking trio all glance at each other mid strike as the monster seemed to be getting more and more enraged rather than more and more closer to elimination.

"Get its middle! Or side! Wherever its weak side is!"

Allen watched as the trio resumed attacking with more fervor, calling out special attacks for their weapons that Allen couldn't quite hear. Allen watched in pure fascination for a moment before turning to the task at hand. He had to activate his weapon and help. He shut his eyes and focused solely on his arm. He _wanted_ to help so why wasn't a weapon appearing or anything? A tingling sensation as if his weapon were responding awakened in his arm but before he could get much further the earth shook powerfully. It seemed as if they were finally getting the upper hand. The monster had fallen to the ground and wasn't scuttling to its feet like before. "Let's get this thing over with." Lavi said wiping a bloodied over his face to wipe away sweat. The others nodded and leaped back into action when a cry that wasn't the monsters pierced the air.

They all swiveled their heads to see a bloody claw had pierced through Lavi's chest and he was slowly sinking to his knees before a light shimmered and he disappeared. Lenalee and Allen cried "Lavi!" and that while they were distracted the monster used that moment to unleash a howl of its own to disorientate them before it didn't start to pelt Lenalee and Kanda with attacks but hurtled straight towards Allen.

Ok, he seriously needed that weapon.

That monster had killed his first friend and he was going to make it wish it had never been created. If the weapon wasn't going to appear when he called it…Then he would make it.

Allen ran straight towards the monster hoping against hope that this insane plan actually worked.

"What are you doing Allen?!" Yes, Lenalee….Just what am I doing Allen asked himself as with growing realization he realized his hand wasn't growing magically longer or anything resembling a weapon.

The monster reached out its clawed hands and swiped him into the air bringing him closer to its face. None of those earlier attacks with various weapons had killed him and all Allen had were his own two hands. So he did what any sensible person in his position would do. He pulled at the mask of the monster. And with a great suction cup noise the mask popped off and Allen tumbled through the air as the clawed hand holding him suddenly disappeared.

"Wha-Where did it go?"

The wind picked up around the area and the remains of the monster swirled in the air before flying off towards the clearing blue sky.

Allen felt something tickling his cheek and sitting up he realized that puffs of green were sprouting from the ashes of the scorched forest.

"Just what was that thing?"

XxX

"It had to have been the spirit of that forest or something."

Lavi adjusted his green bandana and happily strolled with his friends in the fading afternoon orange light. Allen trailed behind the trio and looked around the beautiful landscape of rolling hills blazing gold in the sunset.

The redhead continued, "It sucks that I couldn't have seen that…You guys are so lucky!"

"I wouldn't say so, it was still pretty frightening." Lenalee said.

Allen tuned out of the conversation. Off in the distance he could see specks of buildings which he assumed was where he and his friends were heading towards. Lenalee had mentioned something about meeting her brother but to be entirely honest he felt drained from fighting that monster and trekking over to the nearest town to meet Lavi at the regeneration station. He had a feeling he should be logging off soon but he wanted to wait until they made it to the city not too far off.

The night life of the fairly small city was astonishingly vibrant as people milled around with friends in various degrees of intoxication (He wasn't sure how people could get drunk in a dream but whatever). Tidy shops run by PCs and actual gamers had all sorts of things in their windows. One store had books floating from bookshelves to desks and pages turning by themselves. Another store sold weapons of every shape and size along with some pretty heavy duty armor. Not really paying attention to where he was going Allen was startled when suddenly they stopped in front of a small building.

It had a sign swinging on the front that read: "The Black Order Bar." The entire front of the bar was covered in simple black tiles but their shiny lacquer trapped hints of light in its surface almost making it look like a galaxy in each tiny square. Littering its shiny walls were tiny rectangular windows allowing for blurry figures to move in and out of its little frame.

A bell jingled when the door opened and immediately like a pressure door the sounds of glasses clinging, bouts of laughter and the sound of a tap being filled burst forth from the open door. They had just filed in the bar when a shadow flew over from god knows where and flying tackled Lenalee.

"MY PRECIOUS SISTER! YOU'VE RETURNED!" Clinging onto the pigtailed girl was a man with a barrette askew on his raven hair.

"Ok, brother," the girl in a near strangle hold patted her brother's arm lightly, "I have some friends with me and I want to introduce you to one of them."

Suddenly a heavy aurora surrounded the man's flowery loving countenance and a cold chill settled. He stepped away and turned towards the new arrivals.

"This is Komui, my brother, he runs this bar. And this is Allen, we met him when Lavi and I were heading back from a mission."

Allen was about to hold out a hand to shake Komuis but before he could do that, "You didn't make any passes at my darling sister, did you?"

"Wha-? No, no, I didn't!" Allen shook his head and raised his hands up.

"Hmm…" Komui scratched his chin and violet eyes peered at him from beneath his spectacles.

"Come on brother, he is telling the truth." Lenalee sighed as she pinched her nose.

"Ok~! Whatever my lovely sister says!" He crooned. Komui turned to Lavi and said, "I sure hope you didn't do anything either…"

"Komui!"

Komui shrugged and turned to the quietest of the group of four, "so, they finally found you, huh?"

"Che." Kanda turned the other way obviously not pleased that they had discovered he was even in the game at all.

A crash of glass and a yell followed soon after and Komui hurried away to see what happened.

From behind Allen he heard a weird growl, "Can we get something to eat? I'm a starving man over here" Lavi groaned.

"Yeah! Let's go ask Jerry if he could make something for us." Lenalee led them through the maze of beer soaked tables and benches till they reached a little open window with a blur of pink zooming from one side of the kitchen to the other.

"Hey Jerry!" Lenalee said and the pink blur came to a stop. A tan man with pink hair, which oddly enough suited him, stopped and threw a grin towards them. "Welcome back!" His eyes honed in on the new arrivals, " Who are those two behind ya Lena?"

"This is Kanda and Allen." She explained.

He bounced towards the window, "they look so adorable~! What can I make ya guys? It's on the house." .

Allen let the three of his friends go first as he planned what he would have. He had to put a lot of thought into this after-all…

"-And can I have 15 Mitarashi Dangos?"

"Sure, honey!"

Allen paused and cleared his throat, "actually can you make that 20?"

"Tell you what, let's make that 25."

"YES." Allen cried happily as Jerry moved away with his lengthy list of foods that Allen had ordered. _Finally someone who's mouth didn't drop when I ordered my food!_ He mentally pumped his fists in the air and smiled broadly as he turned around to look at his friends already seated and eating. They all looked at him quizzically as he had taken some time ordering. Well, two of them did at least, the other was more involved in his soba.

When Allen sat down after pushing his heavy cart of food the sound of forks and glasses dropping in shock did not faze the 16 year old boy. He was used to it. Mere seconds later it was like Allen turned into a human black hole and food was flying everywhere as he ate.

Everyone watched for a minute before turning back to their food, they have seen stranger things.

Allen's friends, however, thanked whatever gods above were watching over them as they nearly felt sick from watching Allen eat. One, however, feel the need to stop this disgusting show. Kanda set down his chopsticks and glared at Allen, "that's disgusting, Moyashi."

Allen slurped at one noddle extra loudly and said, "if you don't like it, move."

"You move."

"It was just a helpful suggestion," Allen said while waving around his chopsticks just to spite the other, "Also, I know what moyashi means…Bakanda."

Kanda wasn't expecting that and his glare intensified as he slowly stood up, "O I'll give you a helpful suggestion you little—OKAY OKAY were all friends here." Lavi cut Kanda off suddenly.

A dark fire spurt in between the two and in a totally not scary at all way that really didn't give Lavi nightmares for months later Allen and Kanda flipped to look at him with sinister light in their eyes and growled, "Shut up."

They turned back to each other, ignoring the quivering redhead who lost all his resolve to break them apart. Suddenly they yelped (which they would deny later) as Lenalee pulled at their ears and pulled them back to their sitting positions.

She sat daintily afterwards and resumed eating. From somewhere in the back Komui yelled "That's my sister!"

Apparently Lavi had some brain cells pack up and leave because he slowly stood up from his seat and stood up on the table. People all around stopped mid drink and conversations dwindled as they all focused their attention on the red head.

"I have something to say."

Someone in the back muttered, "no kidding." But Lavi, if he heard that or not continued, "I died earlier today."

"And last week too." Someone supplied helpfully.

Lavi shook his head, "that's not the point. This game is _amazing_. If you mess up or make one bad move in real life that's it. But here, in Half Heroes, you get second chances." A moment went by as he let everyone consider this.

"So, I just want to raise a toast to Half Heroes!" Amber liquid flew in an arc as Lavi swung his jug in the air to happily jug down the alcohol.

With a roar everyone yelled: "TO HALF HERO-SLAM!" The door to the bar opened suddenly with a mighty slap.

A man stood heaving in the door frame with hair mussed up in all directions and sweat dripping off his glistening face. His mouth opened and closed without a sound like a fish gasping for air. The man worked around whatever was holding him back and he gasped, "h-elp."

The stranger's eyes rolled to the back of his head and everyone snapped out of whatever trance they had been in as the man teetered forward. Someone ran up to steady him and cried out, "what the hell!"

Allen, along with everyone else closet to the scene saw miniature stars crawling up the man's throat all the way up to his head. They moved in frenzy before suddenly stilling and then the stranger burst into a grand burst of crimson dust.

 **XxX**

 **End of capitulo tres.**

 **Now…(rubs hands evilly) begins da story! BWHAHA! Sorry it just began like now…three chapters in but I like to kind of fidget in my writing chair before fully settling down and getting down to business. I didn't take much time to edit because half the week I was a living zombie…So, sorry…(sits in corner and weeps) But!**

 **I just wanted to thank:**

 **TsubakiKEI, giselleavellaneda09, Lena-luvs-cats, karina001, and Ryuakilover. You left somereally nice comments and without them I doubt I would've continued. You can't imagine how happy it makes me to read them because it makes me want to keep writing. So thanks a lot! =)**

 **Just thought I'd throw this out there but this is my second attempt at a fanfic. I'd appreciate it if you guys told me what I can improve on because I'm still trying to find my style. With this chapter I don't remember much from the actual manga so with the whole thing at the end I don't remember if that is how akuma poison works. Anyways, I meant to post this Wednesday but I got hit with the flu so It might take a bit longer for chapter 4 but I'll try and update next Wednesday.**

 **Anyways, hope to see ya next chapter!**

 **~Ill-Fated-Wish**

 **P.S. I don't know if you guys would be interested in having me set up a playlist for the next chapters but I would be more than happy to do so. Let me know!**


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